words & writing

Random thoughts Monday. Sometimes when you’re just sitting around or on your way to work your mind comes out with all sorts of thoughts. For me in spite of having music to my ears and a book in had my mind tends to wonder and sometimes I think that happens to me when I am blogging too.

As focused as I am on writing something the mind tends to drift off somewhere and usually I would loose my train of thought as to what I am doing. I think it happens to everyone else too. Sometimes inspiration comes about when you’re out of pen and paper. When this happens I usually use my cell phone text message feature and then save it. As anyone could well imagine my draft text message box is filled with my thoughts. I use to actually buy a little note pad and pen but when I collected too many of them already I knew it was time to stop. Writing is part of what makes me happy and to get away from it all. It has always been it for me though there are days where I see my inspiration lacking or I have no motivation to write. There have been occasions where I feel bad about it – not writing that is.

I just realized that I have been writing for the past 20years of my life. I started when I was 14 – with just poems and what not. I have much to show for – a cupboard full actually … heehee. No one close to home reads my work even though I have some things published in magazines from a few years back. Sometimes it hurts but as I get older I am ok with it. I love to write whether it gets published or not. For me writing is expressing myself my thoughts and how I see the world and it makes me feel good and know I have done something worth while in spite of not having the support I so want. But there is ‘C” who is supportive of it and it usually takes on person to let you know you’re on the right track on what you love to do and should continue doing it.

I have always been in love with words from way back. In school I was in on the editorial board of the school paper if you may call it that and then I join the debate team and English language society. I was also involved in the editorial team of the Malay club newsletter. It’s funny now that I have a hard time expressing myself creatively in Malay.

I love writing letters. My letters would be long and chatty as they call these days and I know many people who do this. Sometimes I think the art of letter is lost because of emails. I miss getting long chatty letters which are usually colorful. I love opening the envelope and excitedly await what adventures the letters would take me on. It’s a lot like a book it takes you places and to experiences other than your own. I moved a lot when I was in my early 20’s and I think that caused to loose many of my pen friends. These days its more emails than letters and I usually type long emails and my blog entries on ‘word’ before cutting and pasting it into a blog entry or an email. I can work with the fonts and for some reason it’s more comfortable this way and the mind works better – don’t ask me why but it just do. And the best thing about word is that even when your computer crashes you know your work is not lost.

See where my randomness took me today.*smiles*. Its makes me happy when I start with something and it grows into something more which I don’t expect and this happens in the writing realm of course.

Before I end this here is a quote by Toni Morrison author of ‘The Bluest Eye’
for us to reflect on …

There is a difference between writing for a living and writing for life. If your write for a living, you make enormous compromises, and you might not even able to uncompromised yourself. If you write for life, you’ll work hard; and you’ll do what’s not honest, and now what pays.

And here is a little passage from a book I once read – ‘Chicken soup for the Writer’s Soul’. It’s a book on how struggling, aspiring and published writers share their trials and tribulations and victories when it comes to the writing and the written word. and here is a sampling of it …

‘ … the real worth is inside of you and can only be measured by your understanding of the human condition. Learn to think clearly, understand your medium and understand people. I might add one thing to this. Read the writers you admire the most, unravel the net of words that they spin, and let them be your teachers. You can learn a great deal about the mechanism of writing at school, but the real picture lies in the understanding of the human heart. No school can teach you that. Only you own ears and eyes.
‘A writer’s real worth is inside’ by Howard Fast
taken from Chicken soup for the writers Soul..........

And on that note i end my random thoughts monday & move on to something else .. peace all .